


Not Today (Maybe Tomorrow)

by tylerisdun (lastmidtown)



Category: BLURRYFACE - Twenty One Pilots (Album), Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bisexual Josh Dun, Depression, Gay Tyler, M/M, Multi, Psychological Trauma, josh helping tyler, multichapter fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 16:17:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8630749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastmidtown/pseuds/tylerisdun
Summary: Tyler Joseph is already having a bad case of "senioritis" his junior year at university, and he's not too sure what to do with himself. Luckily, he meets somebody who just might be able to help him through it. (Josh Dun/Tyler Joseph)





	

Tyler Joseph was pretty sure he already had a bad case of senioritis, and it was only junior year, first semester.

 

He was sitting in his Thursday morning 10:05 History of Rock lecture, eyelids drooping, trying to keep himself awake to digest today’s admittedly interesting lecture on the history of punk rock. In other circumstances, he would’ve been completely absorbed in the material, but this week he felt like he’d rather dig his eyeballs out with a spoon than listen to another grating word that came out of this professor’s mouth.

 

He watched the clock on his laptop, praying the seconds would go faster. 11:00… _seriously…_ 11:02… _why does time only go this slowly when I’m in class? Someone should research that_ …. 11:10… 11:15… 11:18.

 

He was already packing up his bag when he heard the professor say those two words every college student dreads with every inch of their being: “Group project.”

 

Tyler’s brain went into overdrive. _Had that actually been on the syllabus?_ He hadn’t exactly remembered seeing it, but there it was in bold print: **Group presentation on the history of one band.** He screamed internally.

 

“You can choose your partners now and discuss a time to meet to talk about this presentation – sooner, hopefully, rather than later,” the professor said. “Besides that, you’re all dismissed. Have a good weekend.”

 

Tyler’s heart was pumping blood faster than he knew was possible. He didn’t know anyone in the class well enough to ask them to be his partner, and what if everyone else already had a partner in mind and he had to partner with himself or _worse_ , join a group of two and be the awkward third person who wasn’t even wanted there? He was starting to feel sick. He wondered how detrimental it would be to his GPA to withdraw from the course if he couldn’t get this worked out.

 

Someone cleared their throat behind him.

 

He jumped and turned around, breath caught in his throat. It was a kid he’d not really noticed before, but now that this kid was standing in front of him, Tyler wondered how he’d never noticed him before. His hair was a bright blue. Probably punk, possibly still stuck in the emo stage, Tyler decided. The kid smiled. “Sorry, did I scare you? I didn’t mean to. I just – I noticed you didn’t have a partner, and neither did I, so I thought, um, if you don’t mind, we could partner together? My name’s Josh. I sit down the aisle from you.”

 

For a few seconds Tyler just stood there, trying to find words, while Josh stared at him expectantly. Finally he managed, “Yeah, um, sure, that’d be great, um, thank you. I’m Tyler. Um, when do you want to meet?”

 

“Well, I’m free Sunday afternoons,” Josh said hesitantly. “So maybe this Sunday? We could discuss ideas and stuff. Maybe around 3 in the library?”

 

“Works for me,” Tyler said.

 

“Cool.” Josh pulled out a pen and scribbled something rapidly on a slip of paper, then handed it to Tyler. “My number. In case, you know, something comes up or something.” He grinned again. “See you then!”

 

Tyler tilted his head to the side. _Too happy-go-lucky to be emo or punk, but there’s something off about him. If he’s so kind and happy, then why didn’t he have anyone to work with on a group project? And if he did… why ask me?_

* * *

 

 

Tyler spotted Josh’s head of blue hair from halfway across the library, and silently he thanked God that his partner was so noticeable that he didn’t have to waste time awkwardly searching for him or texting him. He walked over slowly, dragging his feet and listening to the sound of his feet hitting the carpet. Once he got there, he kept his eyes on the ground. “Hey.”

 

“Hey, Tyler, glad you found me,” Josh said warmly. “How’s your day been?”

 

“It’s been alright. I mostly just slept most of the day,” Tyler responded, face warming a little – would Josh be the type to judge someone who wasted so much time sleeping? “And you?”

 

“Same for me,” Josh said with a laugh. “I promised myself I’d get up early and get to studying for my exam this week, but unfortunately I lie to myself more often than I’d like.”

 

“I understand that feeling too well,” Tyler said, nodding.

 

“Well, I guess we should get started then. We have to, like, do a project about a band’s history and how it relates to the greater history of rock in general, right? Do you have any specific bands you like?” Josh asked. “I’m kinda open to anything, I guess.”

 

“I’m a pretty staunch Green Day fan, but half of the class will probably be doing that,” Tyler answered.

 

“Who cares if they are?” Josh shrugged. “You should do what you want, not worry about what other people are doing. And anyways, even if they are –“ Josh leaned a bit closer, so Tyler caught a whiff of his strong Axe cologne – “I’m kinda struggling with my other classes and Green Day seems pretty easy to determine, like, their influence on rock as a whole, so I’m completely up for it. And also I’m a Green Day fan as well, so it’s kinda like a dream for me.”

 

Tyler couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “Fine, fine. If you insist.”

 

“I’m not too computer-savvy, so unless you’re a fancy CompSci major, maybe we should just stick to PowerPoint,” Josh continued.

 

“Communications, actually, so unless we’re planning on e-mailing the whole class, PowerPoint works for me.”

 

Josh laughed. “Let’s start with slide one, then.”

 

* * *

 

 

Tyler didn’t get back until approximately 6:00 PM that night, but he was sure it was the longest amount of time he’d spent outside of his room in a week or so. Needless to say, his roommate was surprised.

 

“Where you been, Joseph?” Brendon asked, feigning shock. “Got a hot date? Gimme all the deets. I’ve been dying here without you.”

 

“Yes, Brendon, I went on a hot date at three in the afternoon,” Tyler retorted, climbing onto his bed and kicking off his shoes. “It was just some stupid group project meeting.”

 

“Oooh, touchy. But I still want the deets.” Brendon sidled up to his bed. “Girl? Guy? Attractive? Do I know them? Will I know them? Who asked who? What class? What topic? God, Joseph, I’ve just gotta know.”

 

“Guy. Semi-attractive, I guess. His name’s Josh. Don’t know his last name or want to put in the effort to know. He asked me to do a partner project together, probably because everyone else had already partnered up. It’s my History of Rock class. We’re doing a presentation on Green Day. Now, do you have any more questions, or can I finally rest in peace?”

 

Brendon half-smiled. “I don’t know any Joshes. Sorry, sorry, it’s just nice to see you getting out every once in a while. Anyway, unfortunately you won’t be blessed with my presence for long, because I’m about to head out to band rehearsal, so I’ll see you when I get back, all right?” He grabbed his bag off the floor and walked off, but hesitated when he got to the door. “Want me to turn off the lights?”

 

“Yes, please,” Tyler replied quietly.

 

An unfortunate expression darkened Brendon’s face, but Tyler couldn’t completely read it before Brendon’s usual smile was back on his face. “Stay strong, Joseph,” Brendon said as he switched off the lights and headed out the door.

 

And, once again, Tyler was left with nothing but the hell of his thoughts.

 

* * *

 

Tuesday mornings weren’t Tyler’s absolute favorites.

 

“Hey, Tyler!” Josh greeted him cheerily outside of the Johnson Building where their History of Rock class was housed. “I didn’t know you drove to class.”

 

“My dorm’s on the other campus, so it’s just faster and I have a car anyways, might as well use it,” Tyler said.

 

“Got it. Well, it’s a nice car,” Josh offered. “Anyways, I wanted to catch you. You left your pen behind after our meeting Sunday, and I thought you might want it back.”

 

Tyler looked incredulously from the pen to Josh, mentally calculating exactly how many pens he’d stolen from friends over the years after ‘borrowing’ them. The level of pure kindness it took to safe-keep a single pen for two days and then seek out the person to return it to them was fairly high, at least in Tyler’s opinion. He gave a half-smile. “Thanks, Josh.”

 

“When do you have time to meet next?” Josh asked as the two of them started walking into the building. “I have rehearsal for the school band tonight, but I could do after, maybe around 8?”

 

“I could probably do that,” Tyler said with a slight head nod.

 

“Great, see you then.” Josh smiled as he walked down an aisle towards an empty seat. As Tyler turned to walk away, Josh frowned. “No, come sit with me, if you don’t mind. Maybe I’ll absorb more if someone is here to judge me when I start to drift off.”

 

There was no good reason to refuse, so Tyler forced himself to follow Josh down the aisle and, in an effort not to seem too strange, he took the seat beside Josh. He realized far too late that this meant he had to attempt to make some sort of conversation, so he scrambled through the remnants of their last conversation that had taken root in his brain and eventually came up with something. “So, uh, you’re in the school band?”

 

“Yeah,” Josh said, head bobbing up and down, blue hair spilling in his face. “I play, well, one of the big drums. So if you’re ever watching a football or basketball game by chance, look for the dude with the blue hair and big drum. Do you do anything musical?”

 

“I play piano,” Tyler said.

 

“Oh, that’s really cool! Have you ever thought of joining some sort of musical group on campus?”

 

“Not really,” Tyler said abruptly.

 

“Oh.” Josh looked a little sad, and Tyler felt bad – he hadn’t meant to be so abrupt and such a conversation killer.

 

“I’m just really busy with classes and stuff, I guess,” Tyler offered up in way of explanation.

 

“Oh, yeah, I get that,” Josh said, seemingly back to his normal self. “Junior year is completely killing me, what with classes and activities and trying to sleep and be healthy and have a social life, you know? It’s so hard to find a balance.”

 

Tyler nodded, halfway agreeing, as the professor began class at last. He sighed mentally, feeling himself get sleepy already. Even if he’d slept more than 12 hours the night before, his body didn’t seem to care. It must be nice, Tyler decided as he drifted off into dreamland, to have a body that wasn’t constantly fighting against your efforts at every single turn.

 

* * *

 

 

That night’s “group work” session was spent in the bottom floor of the library, where students didn’t usually venture due to varied rumors about it being either haunted or infested with roaches, things Tyler typically ignored. There wasn’t too much work done. Most of their time was spent comparing favorite bands and debating the merits of various Green Day songs, but it could be argued that this was relevant to the topic at hand.

 

“We could do our presentation about how certain groups of punks think 21 Guns is better than Basket Case and why in the world that’s the case,” Josh teased as the two of them took the elevator up to the ground floor.

 

“Excuse me, are you calling me a punk?” Tyler questioned. “Have you seen your hair?” He immediately felt funny about saying it; usually he only joked around like that with people he knew personally, but Josh just laughed.

 

“You’re funny, Tyler,” he said. “Say, if you don’t have too much work tonight, you should come over to my dorm. My roommate and I were planning on playing some Mario Kart and ordering pizza – I know, I know, on a Tuesday night, but it’ll just be a short, fun break since it’s getting so close to exam season.”

 

Tyler froze. On one hand, the idea did sound terribly appealing. He was growing rather fond of Josh, and he’d always loved pizza and Mario Kart, though Melee was still better than all the Mario Kart games combined. On the other hand, though, it meant going into uncertain circumstances and meeting this _roommate_ he’d never heard of before and talking and being unsafe and confused and it would be so much better to just stay on his own, for now at least.

 

“I’m sorry,” Tyler choked out. “I can’t, tonight, I have an essay due and stuff, and I really should be getting back, so I can’t, not today.”

 

“Well, that’s okay,” Josh said, looking somewhat concerned. “Maybe another time then?”

 

Tyler dashed off before he could answer.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I'm fairly new to the fandom, so please don't hate me too much if my characterizations weren't entirely accurate. Also, I'm pretty familiar with Brendon/Panic!, but I'm considering adding other bands to the story so if you have any suggestions let me know!   
> In case it wasn't obvious from the first chapter, heavy TW for mental illness in the rest of this story.  
> I hope you liked this first chapter and that you guys can leave comments to let me know if I should continue this story!! Thanks so much for reading.


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